


Part Three - It’s Better to be Lucky than Good

by Saraleee



Series: Nwalin Week 2014 [3]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Dwalin is female in this one, F/M, Gambling, Nwalin Week, Shapeshifting, Trolls, dice games, fem!Dwalin - Freeform, male!Nori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 12:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1605272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraleee/pseuds/Saraleee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nori is a shapeshifter. Dwalin is a dwarrowdam with a grudge against Nori.  They play a game of chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part Three - It’s Better to be Lucky than Good

Nori flew through the night. He stayed low on the grasslands and deftly skimmed over the tops of trees. The sky was clear and starry, a good night for scouting the terrain ahead of Thorin’s Company but also a good night for predators. He stayed alert and wary. He saw signs of trolls roaming the grasslands at the foot of the mountains – he’d have to let Thorin know in the morning.

It was exhausting, scouting ahead at night and riding a pony during the day, but this was why he’d been allowed to come along. A thief would never have been able to join the company unless said thief had had some very special qualifications—and now Thorin Oakenshield was the only other living person who knew Nori’s secret.

Nori was a shape-shifter, and his animal form was a bat. Small, quick, winged, and so common in the underground cities of the dwarves that he was practically invisible, it was the key to his success as a thief. Not very impressive, perhaps; being a wolf- or bear-dwarf would be better than being a part-time flying rat. But it would have been hard to explain the presence of a bear on the top of a rich dwarf’s armoire. Or in a dwarrowdam’s bedroom late at night. And bears can’t fly.

He hadn’t been given a choice in the matter, and he had made the best of the situation. That could be the motto of the House of Ri, he thought wryly: We make the best of the situation. He might not be proud of his ability to shift into a bat, but he’d turned it into a profitable career.

His scouting done for the night, Nori landed among the trees a good distance from the dwarves’ camp and braced himself for the agony of the shift back to Nori the Dwarf. Strangely, shifting into his bat-form was quick and easy, but for some reason the transition from bat back to dwarf was painful enough to wring a groan from him, even after all these years.

He drew in a breath. Slowly his fox-like muzzle turned into Nori’s familiar long nose and narrow face. The velvety black wings shrank down to hands, and the red-brown fur on his body receded to his usual three-pointed hairstyle and braided beard.

Wiping one hand over his sweating face, he stumbled back to the campsite and fell onto his bedroll.

Later the next day, after they had dismounted near the skeletal remains of an old farmhouse, Nori reminded Thorin that there were trolls in the area. Thorin scowled at the wizard Gandalf’s retreating back.

“This place is as good as any,” he said shortly, and turned away. “Come on, Bombur, we’re hungry.”

Nori couldn’t argue with that. There was no way to tell where the trolls would roam. They could be miles away, or close by. They would just have to be careful.

“Fili, Kili, guard the ponies,” Thorin ordered. “Don’t let them out of your sight.” That made Nori feel a little better. He sat down beside Ori, who was knitting a scarf.

“Nice. Is it wool?” Nori asked. Ori nodded and smiled. Dori bustled over to them both with wooden bowls of stew, and they all ate in companionable silence.

Dwalin stalked by, carrying her own bowl of stew. She glared at Nori, still furious that Thorin had permitted him to join the quest. Thorin, true to his promise, had refused to explain his reasons. He had also forbidden Dwalin to touch Nori.

That had made her even madder.

It was too bad that she was the kind to hold a grudge, but she wouldn’t have been Dwalin if she had been willing to forgive and forget. Dwalin was even more beautiful when she was mad, and the sheer physical threat of her was intoxicating. The problem was, Nori just couldn’t leave her alone. He had an irresistible compulsion to needle her and pester her—to do anything so she would notice him.

Nori waved cheerily at her. “Hey, Dwalin. Want to play a game?”

“No,” she said, curling her lip with disdain. She walked on, so Nori jumped up and followed her.

“Wait, you haven’t even heard what it is,” he protested.

She whirled around to face him. “Nothing,” she snarled, “you could say would change my mind.”

They were far enough away that the others wouldn’t hear. Nori spoke fast. “Want to know how I escaped from you those times? Best two out of three rolls of the dice.”

She froze in her tracks. Those fierce gray-blue eyes narrowed. _Gotcha,_ he thought, although his stomach churned at the thought of telling her the truth. She would hate him even more if she knew.

“What game?” she asked.

“Three dice,” he answered promptly. “Usual rules. 4-5-6 is an instant win. Triples beat pairs, and low pairs with a 6 beat higher pairs. Pairs with 1s lose. Other combinations don’t count, except 1-2-3 is an instant loss.”

Dwalin eyed him coldly. He knew she was burning to know how he’d done it. “Okay,” she said.

“If you win, I tell you how I got away. And if you lose, we fuck.”

Her face went bright red with outrage. “WHAT?”

“Keep it down,” Nori hissed. “That’s the deal. If you win, you get your questions answered. And if I win, that’s what I get – a night in bed with you. Or not in a bed, I don’t care. As long as it’s you and me.”

Her nostrils were flaring, her eyes blazing, and her hands were clenched into hard fists. Dwalin was breathing so hard she was practically snorting. If she had an animal form, it would probably be a buffalo. Good thing Thorin had forbidden her from beating Nori to a pulp.

Nori stood his ground.

After a few minutes, she calmed down enough to say, “No.”

“Suit yourself,” Nori said. He gave her a cocky smile to show that it was no big deal to him. He didn’t want to tell her anyway.

But now the idea of fucking Dwalin was seared into his mind. Saying it out loud had made it all too real to him, and his brain began feeding him images of the two of them naked and tangled together. He could feel himself getting hard, and banished the thoughts viciously.

He turned to go. She caught his arm, held it in a vise-like grip.

“You would tell the truth?” Dwalin growled.

He looked up into her eyes. “If you won. You could confirm it with Thorin.”

He saw how badly she wanted to know—the mystery of his escape was tormenting her like an itch she couldn’t scratch and winning would bring her the relief she craved.

She nodded. “Let’s play.”

Sudden doubt curdled his heart. She would despise him once she knew the trick. “You sure? I’m not going to let you back out if I win.”

“Don’t think I’m going to let you back out, either,” she replied with a sneer.

Dwalin insisted on choosing the dice, so that Nori couldn’t tamper with them. Bifur, toymaker and carver that he was, supplied her with two sets of three uniquely-carved dice and they spread out a blanket to roll them on. The rest of the company gathered around, happy for the entertainment of watching the game.

Neither Nori nor Dwalin were about to share the true stakes of the game with the rest of the company, so each of them put up one gold coin each as the “stakes.”

They each rolled their three dice at the same time, and the other members of the company shouted out the scores. Random numbers didn’t count, so they rolled again.

On the fifth try, Dwalin won, her pair of 3s and a 6 beating Nori’s pair of 5s with a 2. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she crowed over her victory.

“You’re not a winner yet. There are two more tries,” Ori said loyally as he marked down the score for Dwalin.

To Nori’s relief, he got triple 3s on the very next roll. Dwalin swore when she rolled a pair of fours, losing the round.

Only one chance left. The next scoring roll would decide the game, but the dice were not cooperating. Roll after roll produced only random numbers. Nori realized he was sweating, and wiped his palms on his trousers. He couldn’t tell Dwalin his secret. He’d been crazy to suggest this game.

Dwalin rolled three 6s. She jumped to her feet, hooting in triumph and punching the air.

Last chance. Nori rolled. The dice landed and bounced on the flat blanket. Slowly, they rolled to a stop. Four. Five—oh, Mahal, not even a pair, he’s lost, he’s lost—and then the last die turned over and stopped. Six.

Four. Five. Six. The unbeatable score. He won. Nori won.

He raised his astonished gaze to Dwalin’s gray-blue eyes. She was pale, as shocked as he was.

Thorin’s booming laugh sounded as if it were coming from far away. “Ha, ha, ha! You lost, Dwalin. Nori wins this time.”

Nori and Dwalin stared at each other. Mahal’s holy balls, Nori won.

Kili came charging into the camp. “Thorin! THORIN! The trolls got Bilbo! They’re going to eat him!”

The dice and the blanket were forgotten as the company snatched up their weapons to save the Hobbit from a troll’s cook-pot.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine that Nori is a cross between an Egyptian fruit bat and a golden-crowned flying fox. He can use echolocation, unlike many of the bigger types of bats.
> 
> Also, the dice game is based on cee-lo, a gambling game that has the rules I've described. I've never played it, so my version might be somewhat different from the real-world game.


End file.
